Cooperation among Animals

An Evolutionary Perspective

Lee Alan Dugatkin

Cooperation among Animals

An Evolutionary Perspective

Lee Alan Dugatkin

Description

Despite the depiction of nature "red in tooth and claw," cooperation is actually widespread in the animal kingdom. Various types of cooperative behaviors have been documented in everything from insects to primates, and in every imaginable ecological scenario. Yet why animals cooperate is still a hotly contested question in literature on evolution and animal behavior. This book examines the history surrounding the study of cooperation, and proceeds to examine the conceptual, theoretical and empirical work on this fascinating subject. Early on, it outlines the four different categories of cooperation -- reciprocal altruism, kinship, group-selected cooperation and byproduct mutualism -- and ties these categories together in a single framework called the Cooperator's Dilemma. Hundreds of studies on cooperation in insects, fish, birds and mammals are reviewed. Cooperation in this wide array of taxa includes, but is not limited to, cooperative hunting, anti-predator behavior, foraging, sexual coalitions, grooming, helpers-at-the nest, territoriality, 'policing' behavior and group thermoregulation. Each example outlined is tied back to the theoretical framework developed early on, whenever the data allows. Future experiments designed to further elucidate a particular type of cooperation are provided throughout the book.

Cooperation among Animals

An Evolutionary Perspective

Lee Alan Dugatkin

Reviews and Awards

Chosen as an Outstanding Academic Book of 1997 by Choice

"Dugatkin's little book is both a great introduction to and a good review of cooperation in animals. He begins with an excellent summary of the long-standing interest in cooperative behavior among philosophers, psychologists, and biologists. . .He outlines four models of cooperation behaviors within evolutionary biology--reciprocity, kin selection, group selection, and byproduct mutualism--and reviews theoretical work on the evolution of cooperation." --Choice

"Lee Dugatkin goes beyond a taxonomic survey. . .and provides a wonderful review of philosophical and biological ponderings on the nature of cooperation. This early history sets the stage for introducing four contemporary alternative, though not exclusive, mechanisms that have been invoked to explain both the evolution and persistence of cooperation in animals: kin selection, group selection, reciprocity and by-product mutualism. . . .With nearly a thousand reference, a major attraction of this book is the comprehensive review of cooperative behaviors by different species of fishes, birds, nonprimate mammals and nonhuman primates. . . .Dugatkin has succeeded both in summarizing what we currently know about cooperation in animals and, perhaps more importantly, what remains to be learned." --The American Scientist

"The book performs a useful service in bringing together many examples of behavior, including some, such as caregiving in dolphins, that have been largely overlooked to date. It sharpens our thinking about cooperation and teaches us to be critical when discussing the mechanisms that lead animals to behave in a way that benefits another individual." --Evolution

"In an engaging, honest, and self-effacing style, Dugatkin summarizes the history of research on cooperative behavior in chapter 1, lays out a "grand theory" of cooperation in chapter 2, and then musters a prodigious amount of data and examples in chapters 3-7 to suuport it."--BioScience

"The topic of cooperation is a difficult one to pin down, but I believe that Dugatkin has done just that....It will certainly appeal to a wide interdisciplinary audience and represents an admirably ambitious project for an outstanding young biologist."--American Zoologist

". . . the book will serve as a very useful overview of theoretical and empirical research on cooperation in a variety of guises and across a reasonably wide range of animal species."--The Quarterly Review of Biology

"This book would be useful for introducing the topic of cooperation among animals, particularly to advanced undergraduates."--The Condor